Import from Visio

[BobbyT]

I have to  imported lots of  Visio diagrams using the MGD add on
we have already defines artifacts and specific network Vlans , firewall objects in our custom MDG technologies package
the import  creates its own Nodes under the newly created package

I was wondering if I can customize the import to point to already existing objects

I was trying to find a support number to call for USA or Canada  ( I am based in Toronto , Canada)  but there is only 1 no available for Australia If I'm not mistaken

I have send an email to support SparkX no answer yet

Please advice

Bobby

[Geert Bellekens]

Bobby,

There is no telephone support from Sparx Systems directly, but you can contact a Value Added Reseller in your area who might be able to help you. See http://sparxsystems.com/partners/vars/north_america.html

With regards to your actual question. I don't have experience wit the visio importer, but I'm pretty sure it will not be able to overwrite existing elements, but only create new elements.
If you need a feature like that you could consider writing your own import script (or contact a VAR to write the script for you).
Should not be too hard I think.
If you are looking for a place to start you can use my simple Excel VBA importer

Geert

[BobbyT]

the import creates the diagram and its own elements or nodes , like firewall , network

we already have these defined as common elements
I want to see how I can link the diagram with the existing objects

A VAR will charge us too much they already had one before

worse comes to worse I guess I can just import the diagram and maybe I can link to the existing common infrastructure objects 

[qwerty]

If i't a one-time job and not too repetitive: do it manually. If it's to be done one a permanent basis, look into scripting it. You can use stereotypes for the shapes and set them to rules you need to figure out. If you can't afford a consultant, you have to learn that yourself. Depending on your abilities it may or may not pay out in the future ;-)

q.

[BobbyT]

It is repetitive tens of diagrams with tens of server .... importing will create new elements
I already have a place  Custom Infrastructure Elements where most of the subnets , servers and other objects are already defined in older projects 

I want to import the Visio diagrams and write a script to point to already existing objects

regards

BObby

[qwerty]

That's probably the best approach then. If you run into issues, just come back here. I don't know how the visio importer works. But maybe if it can import in a new folder, you might set up rules to match existing elements from previous imports. This could be a naming convention and/or additionally a path and if that's possible some tagging.

q.